At the end of the
eighteenth century, the laissez-faire-philosopher-turned-statist
Jeremy
Bentham devised a scheme for the design of a prison
he called the Panopticon: a circular building at the center of which
is a watchtower made of glass from which it is possible to observe
the inmates at all times. If we look at America as one vast prison,
with ourselves as the inmates, we can get some idea of what the
national security bureaucracy was envisioning when they conceived PRISM,
“Boundless Informant,” and the program that records
the details (minus content) of every phone call made
in the US (which, as far as I know, doesn’t have a name).
Derived from documents leaked to the Guardian newspaper columnist
Glenn Greenwald, these revelations throw back the curtain on a
modern day, hi tech Panopticon, with the high priests of the
National Security State sitting at the center of it, relentlessly
observing us, the prisoners—who don’t even know we’re
prisoners – 24/7.

PRISM
allows the National Security Agency (NSA) “direct access to
the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet
giants,” according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian
newspaper. The information scooped up by the NSA includes “search
history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats,”
according to the Power Point presentation leaked by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden. The document claims the US (and
British)
governments collect this information “directly from the
servers” of internet service providers. While at first denying
even knowing about any such government program, as well as the idea
that they would allow direct access to their servers, the named ISPs
later conceded
the truth of these accusations by acknowledging that the information
is indeed being provided in a “online room,” where
massive amounts of information are stored and then transferred to
government snoops.

In
response to civil libertarians who worried about the extend of
government surveillance, and whether it went beyond the bounds
allowed by law, the NSA and the intelligence community routinely
denied they were spying on Americans. It’s just those
dastardly foreigners, they said: oh, but of course we inadvertently
scooped up some information on American citizens, however that was
an unavoidable accident – and, in answer to inquiries from
Sens. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, they claimed there was no way of
knowing how much or to what extent surveillance of Americans had
occurred. No sooner had that been run up the flagpole than the Guardian
debunked this particular lie with yet another blockbuster story,
this time exposing a program given the sinister name of “Boundless
Informant”:

“The National
Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and
analyzing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about
its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all
the surveillance it performs on American communications.

“The
Guardian has
acquired top-secret documents about the NSA data-mining tool, called
Boundless Informant, that details and even maps by country the
voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and
telephone networks.”

Accompanying
the Guardian
story is a
“heat” map
reprinted from the original documents showing where the snoops are
spying most intensely, with high rates of interception in red and
orange, and the rest in shades of green. America is colored orange.
“Boundless Informant” has the ability to determine how many
communications have been intercepted in a given country, what sort
of communications they are, and other details. In a snapshot of what
our spooks scooped up in March, 2013, we see Iran came in first,
unsurprisingly, with more than 14 billion reports, with Pakistan and
Jordan following close behind. Egypt and India also figure
prominently. Israel looks bright red to me. The map affixes a number
to the orange-colored United States: 2,892,343,346 –
presumably the number of “reports” coming into the
Panopticon for that month.

Combined
with the massive phone call database being compiled – which
can track your location as well as your calls – this triad of
Orwellian devices constitutes a modern day Panopticon, one that
defines us all as inmates in some vast penal institution. Which pretty
much sums up the status of the individual in the year 2013, and,
indeed, in the entire post-9/11 era. We are living in the era of the
Surveillance
State, in which
the “enemy” is not just some nameless, faceless terrorist but, potentially, anyone and everyone.

In
the midst of these shocking revelations, their author has
bravely come forward: he is 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a former
employee of the Booz-Allen defense contractor who worked for the
NSA and has now apparently fled to Hong Kong. In an
interview with
the Guardian,
Snowden states his motives forthrightly:

“The NSA has
built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost
everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human
communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I
wanted to see your emails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is
use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records,
credit cards.

“I don’t want
to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do
not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is
recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live
under.”

This
is what is going to save our republic, in the end: the existence of
people like Edward Snowden, who, I’m not surprised to learn,
contributed
$250 to Ron
Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. The whole tenor of his
remarks to the Guardian
bespeaks an explicitly libertarian critique of the “authoritarian
mindset” – as he puts it – of the government spies
who are tracking our every move. This
video interview
with Snowden, conducted by Glenn Greenwald, literally brought tears
to my eyes: one could not possibly hope for a clearer, more eloquent
indictment of the emerging American police state than Snowden’s
withering analysis of what he calls “the architecture of
oppression.” Here is someone who gave up a comfortable life in
Hawaii as a highly-paid government contractor and now risks jail –
“I do not expect to see home again” – and eternal
exile. Why did he do it? To give the American people the
information they need to decide whether they want to live in a
society where government spying on citizens is ubiquitous. His
greatest fear? It’s not imprisonment, but the fear that his
act will change nothing.

It’s up to us to
make sure his heroic act is not in vain. He
appears to be a confirmed libertarian, and an informed and
articulate one at that. Libertarians are in the vanguard of this
fight, and have been from the beginning: it’s no accident that Sen. Rand Paul is introducing
legislation – the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act – to
shut down the Panopticon now. Thank the gods for the Glenn
Greenwalds, the Daniel Ellsbergs, and the rest of the honest
liberals who defend the long and distinguished civil libertarian
tradition on the left – they are our invaluable allies

Snowden is bound to be
pilloried as a “traitor” by the neocons, the Lindsey
Grahams and John McCains, and their newfound best friends in the
Obama administration: the latter will doubtless pursue Snowden just
like they pursued Bradley Manning and are still pursuing Julian
Assange. And I can’t wait to hear from the Obama cult on all
this. Snowden is already being attacked by the Usual Suspects for
his choice of sanctuaries, and he answers the question of why Hong
Kong:

“I think it is
really tragic that an American has to move to a place that has a
reputation for less freedom. Still, Hong Kong has a reputation for
freedom in spite of the People’s Republic of China. It has a strong
tradition of free speech.”

Stronger,
apparently, than our own – and that may indeed turn out to be
true, at least in this particular case. Aside from the bitter irony of having to flee to Red China in order to escape the enemies of
freedom – I told you
we’re living in Bizarro World – this is actually quite a
smart
move, because
it’s an open question as to whether the Chinese government
will hand him over to the Americans. If they do, they will surely
take their time about it. Hong Kong has autonomy in its internal
affairs, while defense and foreign policy are Beijing’s
domain. The relatively liberal politics of Hong Kong make a quick
handover unlikely – and, as far as Beijing is concerned,
especially unlikely in the wake of a Sino-American summit at which
President Obama went out of his way to complain about alleged
Chinese hacking of US computer systems. In response to that charge,
Snowden had this to say:

“We hack
everyone everywhere. We like to make a distinction between us and
the others. But we are in almost every country in the world. We are
not at war with these countries.”

While some Chinese
officials would no doubt like to be able to hand Snowden over to the
Americans, the political dynamics of such a move are highly
problematic. They don’t want to be seen as caving in to
American pressure: the ultra-nationalist Chinese public has enough
gripes about official corruption and growing economic inequality for
the Politburo to throw this into the boiling pot. The leadership
transition is still shaky, and the new leader, Xi Jinping, is going
to be sorely tested as this becomes a major diplomatic bone of
contention between Beijing and Washington.

The
impact of these stunning revelations is bound to reverberate
throughout the world, with international as well as domestic
political implications we have only just begun to contemplate, but
one aspect of all this I find especially interesting, and that is
how it is changing the ideological atmosphere in this country. The
change was neatly summed up in a
tweet by one Zaid Jilani,
who I believe is a former blogger for one of the liberal think tanks:

“Don’t
care what party you vote for, if you’re tea party or #OWS,
the only political labels right now are authoritarian or
not-authoritarian.”

Certain
events define the battle lines and show us just where everyone
stands, and the Snowden-Greenwald revelations are just such an
occasion. Where you come out on this issue defines who and what you
are: the “liberal” pundits defending this
administration’s multi-pronged assaulted on civil liberties
will go down in infamy as the Benedict Arnolds of the American left.
In such times, when the stakes are this high, and the future of the
republic is at issue, character determines who will stand up and who
will bow their heads to the powerful. What is striking, to me, is
the atmosphere of fear that this administration has managed to
instill in potential whistleblowers: in his Sunday morning interview
with George Stephanopoulos, Greenwald was asked if the FBI has paid
him a visit “yet”: Glenn’s answer was classic. He said that if
and when the FBI comes calling he’ll tell them, “There’s this
thing called the Constitution, the First
Amendment of which” guarantees his ability to report what the
government is doing in the dark. He made it clear he isn’t
intimidated, and when Stephanopoulos asked if we can be expecting
more revelations, Glenn said, “You can.”

For the first time in
many years, there is a massive fightback against the continuous
assault on the Constitution and the rule of law we’ve been
experiencing since September 11, 2001. God help us if we lose.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

I want to thank all those who gave during the very long and hard
spring fundraiser – we have, at last, made our goal. That was a scary
one, but we got through it – thanks to you, our readers and supporters.
We are doing our best to earn your continued support – without which we
would not exist. We will never take that support for granted.

You
can check out my Twitter feed by going here.
But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately
provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking
out loud.

I’ve
written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here
is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book,
Reclaiming the American
Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement,
with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword
by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and
David Gordon (ISI
Books,
2008).

You
can buy An Enemy of the
State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus
Books,
2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.

Justin? I know that you really are enamored with Rand Paul but, Junior DID endorse Mitt Romney and dissed his very own father. The good Dr. Ron Paul. Junior cannot be trusted. He'll sell you out at the very first chance to earn a 'stipend' from Monsanto.
I'm just saying…

I'm eating a genetically engineered tomato right now, even as I type this, and it sure is GOOD. You'll probably be babbling about Monsanto this, Monsanto that, even as they take away the last of our liberties. Why don't you go pray to your idol, Obama, and ask him to pass a law outlawing all footwear but Birkenstocks?

A hero indeed. And we couldn't have asked for a more ideal whistleblower. I just wished he had waited a bit longer to come out. As it is, everyone will forget about the message and focus on the messenger. Hopefully more Americans with knowledge of illegalities and horrors will come out.

I am surprised that they are monitoring Iran so intensly. Isn't this for America's good; to keep America safe; for national security? It's not like Iran has any intention or capability to launch a "terrorist" attack on the US. So why all this waste of resources on Iran? We know the answer, but it contradicts the bunch of lies they are spewing to defend the illegal and immoral spying, which I'm sure goes against "our values"- a phrase the empty suit of a president loves using.

When the great observational astronomer Tycho Brahe felt that death was at his doorstep, he asked Johannes Kepler to come to his bedside and kept repeating: "Let me not seem to have lived in vain, let me not seem to have lived in vain." Kepler derived the three laws of planetary motion from Tycho's data assuring that indeed he did not live in vain.

It is our duty now to try our best to make sure that Edward Snowden's great act of courage will not be in vain. Our silence will be as great a crime as those of the NSA.

I have a naturally skeptical outlook or simply call me paranoid, but we have no idea who this guy Snowden really is. This could very well be just another government psyop, we've seen this before–remember who we're dealing with here. Any Joe Blow can trot out and say all the things we want to hear and believe, but until he produces anything concrete, I'll reserve judgment for now. Who knows, perhaps he made himself public to prevent being bumped off, but I think we should wait and see before we call this person a hero or some sort of knight on a white horse.

So much of what antiwar.com has been saying for years is so crystal clear in this case. The empire and the warfare state are destroying civil liberties. We trade the constitution for often times phoney protection. Am, I wrong? Its your sister, your brother, and your neighbor they are spying on. CBSNEWS is saying that McCain, that wants to intervene in Syria is rallying around President Obama about this leak, that he is not concerned. ( http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57588402/obam… ) Why can't we draw the conclusion that because the US is addicted to constant war, we are losing the Republic? Wikipedia is quoting how James R Clapper straight out lied to the US senate which is perjury. If the FBI spies on antiwar.com, why can they not use that as a reason to spy on you and me by guilt by association? Is this not squashing your freedom?

I know everyone does not like Paul, but Wikipedia on Snowden says records show he contributed to Ron Paul. I know everyone does not like Libertarians, but people like Lew Rockwell say that Paul's message is spreading to the youth. You think?

I support Rand when he does good, but he has a lot to make up for if he wants my vote in 2016. War took our liberty away and I'm still irritated with Rand concerning his vote on those unwarranted sanctions on Iran. Omni-war begets omni-surveillance. Blowback from American foreign policy could come from anywhere. Can the government's voyeurism be stopped without stopping its imperialism? I think the answer is no. Our liberties have been taken away. We are like fish in water, but now we have a clearer understanding of our predicament thanks to Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald.

Monsanto has nothing to fear. It has Blackwater! It will be interesting to see what side effects if any result from the consumption of genetically modified organisms in us lab rats.

Be careful though with the over-hyped phrase: "…direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants". This can be taken out of context and in a way is "old news", perhaps ignored news.

In December 2009 at Google there was a hack into a database server "with years of information on surveillance orders" and " included information on thousands of orders issued by judges around the country to law enforcement agents seeking to monitor suspects’ e-mails". Mind you according to the presentation Google was added to Prism since 1/14/09. Would this server have played a role?

The real scope of that hack was not just the database of requests but very likely also the responses to those authorized requests for content. In other words, this server provided "access" in a more or less automated fashion (like everything else at Google) for agencies to get real-time access to (copies of) data related to suspicious accounts.

The real question is in my opinion: should such potential for access and query really be centralized in one place? Perhaps NSA has internally all the authorizations in order but what if one day someone decides to change the rules? If someone builds the ideal infrastructure of dictatorship without having an actual dictatorship installed does it mean it's safe to do so? What if the safeguards disappear?

Snowden raises the right questions but I'm worried the discussion is being hyped too much and therefore easier to deny for governments ("we do not *really* spy", and such).

The automated online access to requested content with proper authorzation is then very likely if not certain the "direct access" the leaked presentation was referring to.

"The companies said they do, however, comply with individual court orders, including under FISA. The negotiations, and the technical systems for sharing data with the government, fit in that category because they involve access to data under individual FISA requests. And in some cases, the data is transmitted to the government electronically, using a company’s servers. "

" the high priests of the National Security State sitting at the center of it, relentlessly observing us, the prisoners—who don’t even know we’re prisoners – 24/7."

This reminds me of the book 'They Thought They Were Free' by Milton Meyer.

"What no one seemed to notice was the ever widening gap between the government and the people. And it became always wider…the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think…for people who did not want to think anyway gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about…and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated…by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us…

"Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'…must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing…Each act is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next.

"You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone…you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes."http://www.iefd.org/articles/they_thought_they_we…

Something big like this – why CNN has it on the "front page" – merely confirms what has been said for a long time. Kobi Alexander, CEO of Verint, one of the companies operating PRISM for the NSA, fled the country and was caught in Namibia. He used the spying for Israel and also for his own personal gain. That's got to be part of it, isn't it – not just going after our civil rights, but figuring a way to access private companies with insider secrets, to make money on them. In other words, it is about fraud, facilitated with the threats of terror.

The many purpose-built events which convince Americans to forego their own privacy in the interest of security from terror are designed as propaganda to shut down public protest about the loss of their rights. COINTELPRO is back, but on steroids.

The motive is always in back of things, which is money and power. Some of us are drawn to unmasking these events, but since they are coming so fast, it is hard to keep up. The events supply the justification for the USA Patriot Act and other travesties. They also justify prosecutions of whistleblowers as "traitors" who are believed to have endangered national security (even while the Kobi Alexander's of the world are selling information obtained through PRISM to the highest bidder, worldwide).

There is no national security benefit to what NSA is doing. It in fact insures that our citizens' private business communications will be sold, even while trumped up charges are made against others turned into the necessary terrorist scarecrows to justify the spying.

It's actually a kind of simple mechanism to understand: it is selling your people out for money and pretending you are protecting them. The fear factor has been so great – based on what is provably fake terror – that no one can name their real assailants.

1. This quote is from Raimondo's superb column today.
"Thank the gods for the Glenn Greenwalds, the Daniel Ellsbergs, and the rest of the honest liberals who defend the long and distinguished civil libertarian tradition on the left – they are our invaluable allies."
When I hear the same sentiment from progressives, aka liberals, then we will be getting somewhere. But as of now most are too stiff-necked and smugly self-assured to say such a thing. (And I say that as Amanda of the "old-fashioned Left.)
2. There is a broad spectrum of political sentiment opposed to this latest outrage perpetrated by the US Empire on its own citizens. (Even Rome did not do that – at least not until Xtianity took it over.). But the shared vocabulary of this protest is libertarian, and Rand Paul (whatever else one may think of him), a libertarian, has emerged as the most prominent spokesperson for this protest. The reason is that libertarianism is as American as apple pie, allowing its antiwar spokespersons access to even the Right wing, normally neocon, talk shows. The road to peace leads through the libertarian and "paleoconservative" movements.
Keep up the great work, JR and AW.C.
P.s. Those Monsanto tomatoes taste pretty good to me also. Once upon a time the Left embraced science. But the pwogwessives have developed a Luddite, anti-science, Malthusian streak, most prominently displayed in their exaggeration of the consequences of the now "stalled" Global Warming.

I like the phrase, "Don't care what party you vote for – if you are TEA Party or OWS, the only political labels now are – authoritarian or non-authoritarian."
And if you are an elite (or want to be one), you are an authoritarian. If you like to keep your nose clean and don't like making waves or offending people, you are also an authoritarian – ( by default).

What a shame Snowden is forced to do the job that used to be the domain of journalists before they resorted to tabloid heroics and pr masquerades, which is to ask and uncover whether it is better that the public decide for itself what it should tolerate or want perpetuated in the guise for freedom and freedom of expression, rather than allowing the state or a handle of individuals to make those vital concerns for us…http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2013/06/was-he-ri…

As for Monsanto tomatoes – the really important thing is not just to look at the paint job on the car, but to look under the hood and check the safety ratings, etc. Recently a research scientist at MIT gave a talk on the problem with GMO crops which resist weed-killers like Round-Up. She pointed out that the "resistance" actually meant that the crops were able to absorb that phosphate-based herbicide, and that people then consumed it. There are other issues with these seeds, including the fact that seed-saving becomes problematical (a recipe for starvation in Third World countries). From the Opium Wars in China to the present day, addicting world populations to our solutions for them is always done with deception.

So by all means create a better tomato. But find out what you give up. That isn't Luddite thinking. It is being a responsible steward. The only thing which is Luddite is treating all questions as bad for the brand you are hawking. It's straight out of the carnival midway – "Go away sonny, you bother me."

Don't you get it? Justin Raimondo and 'ANTIWAR.COM" are fronts for the teabagging idiots of the republican party. Anyone who thinks that little boy Rand is going to do anything other than what his paymasters and Mitch McConnell tell him to do is either delusional or a fraud. This site is not antiwar in any real sense. They are boutique activists sponging off of other who truly want the empire to come to a speedy and effective end, to stop all these illegal, insane, and useless wars, murder sanctions that kill children by the hundreds of thousands, and the surveillance and police state that is simply clamping down on anyone who dare to challenge their criminal edicts. But don't look here for that kind of serious leadership……………..

This article is a typical example of why a LOT of us are becoming disillusioned with antiwar. What the hell does it matter if Snowden is a libertarian – or a fascist or communist or whatever? He's done the right thing as a person of conscience and courage, and his political leanings have nothing to do with it. Raimondo should be ashamed of himself.

You think that humans eating GMO that causes cancers the size of golfballs in test animals is even remotely funny? Battles have to be waged on several fronts, not the least of which is with Monsanto, the militarized police, and with Obama and your republican war mongering friends, starting with little boy Rand Paul, the teabagging reactionary moron………………….

I guess with this Snowden character, we'll get to really see if Jason Bourne was nothing more than just a movie character. If this guy was a former defense contractor employee who truly "blew the whistle", then essentially he is now target one for the CIA……………..

Monsanto: the fine folks that brought you ddt, agent orange and round up. all perfectly safe things that didn't kill millions. now that they're in charge of the food supply only good things will happen. seriously people, do some research and change your diet.

being a conspiracy wackadoo wingnut paranoid crazy man I get to say I FREAKIN TOLD YOU SO!!! of course they're spying on you. that was always the plan. they're doing it right now in real time. the question remains what are we going to do about it? I say the 2nd amendment is a handy tool, but i'm sure you power of the pen types will keep whining with zero effect.

these power mad freaks are not going to give one inch. they wreck and destroy entire nation states based on knowingly false pretenses and us calling our senators is going to make a difference? I say get ready for a fight. a big one.

Change their diet?! Good luck with that. The amerikan diet consists of GMO and high fructose corn syrup, cookies, soda pop with tons of brain damage induced aspartame, reality tv, rap music, devil worshipping symbols by the illuminati, drugs, and alcohol, and rampant sex parties in which the morning after pill is picked from a bowl of drugs at a pill party……………

Performance > credentials (youtube John Taylor Gatto Ultimate History Lesson) especially when it comes to technology, and perhaps it was the perfect time to put this out since government spying and misconduct has been in the news lately. Also those sites forget to mention the guy has a GED.

After giving considerable thought to your reply Raimondo, I'll add this – Rand Paul voted in favor of giving "protections" to Monsanto. Monsanto deserves NO protection. Rand tends to sway with the breeze and he's earned NO credibility. You had an excellent article going but sort of pooched it by bringing up Rand.
Now, your insulting response seems beneath even you. "Pray to my idol Obama?" WTF is up with that?
You might want to consider who pays the Antiwar.com tab and not be so insulting with contributors of which I am one. Given your pretentious demeanor, that just might change.

Israel is involved up to it's eyeballs in the spying on all US Telecommunications/Internet – the Israelis THEMSELVES are admitting it – here's how they do it:

Israeli high-tech firms Verint and Narus have had connections with U.S. companies and Israeli intelligence in the past:

According to Haaretz and referencing an article from technology magazine “Wired” from 2012, two Israeli companies with close connections to the Israeli security community Mossad – conduct bugging and wiretapping for the NSA.

Verint, which took over its parent company Comverse Technology earlier this year, is responsible for tapping the communication lines of the American telephone giant Verizon, according to a past Verizon employee sited by James Bamford in Wired.

Neither Verint nor Verizon commented on the matter.

Natus, which was acquired in 2010 by the American company Boeing, supplied the software and hardware used at AT&T wiretapping rooms, according to whistleblower Mark Klein, who revealed the information in 2004. Klein, a past technician at AT&T who filed a suit against the company for spying on its customers, revealed a “secret room” in the company’s San Fransisco office, where the NSA collected data on American citizens’ telephone calls and Internet surfing.

The Dept of Homeland Security – which has been chaired by rank Neocons every since it was created – is just one of the ways the Israelis/Neocons have completely penetrated the US. The ISRAELIS are reading EVERYTHING we have

"Where you come out on this issue defines who and what you are: the “liberal” pundits defending this administration’s multi-pronged assaulted on civil liberties will go down in infamy as the Benedict Arnolds of the American left…."

Most liberals don't have any principled commitments, beyond their commitments to themselves. They're interested in power and privilege. Hence, the opportunistic anti-Bush, Jr. protests of 10 years ago, dressed up as "anti-war" protests. A minority of us showed up to oppose a U.S. war of aggression against Iraq, on the principle that it was wrong. Most of the marchers were partisan Democrats, nothing more.

Justin often points out that many a past New Left partisan have since the '80's found a calling as born again neo-cons. Many of them predictably migrated to the confines of the Democratic Party and the best example of their attitude towards dissent was their bitter hate campaign against the Nader presidential campaign in 2000:http://www.counterpunch.org/2000/11/02/get-nader/

"…In thirty years we have not seen and heard such hysteria and venom about Nader the saboteur, Nader the facilitator of fascism. People are frightened of Bush, more frightened than they should be, and fear is always ugly, just as it was when the liberals rushed out to red-bait and denounce the left in the McCarthy years.

"Listening to Democrats screaming about Ralph Nader's entry into the presidential race we finally understand the mindset of those Communist dictatorships that used to take such trouble to ensure that the final count showed a 99 percent Yes vote for the CP candidate. It's a totalitarian logic. "Anybody But Bush" chorus the Democrats. But they don't mean that. They mean, "Nobody But Kerry."

So the Obamacrat partisans rushing to the defense of anything this loathsome politician does are anything but Benedict Arnolds to any liberal causes. They never really had any cause, besides personal self advancement, at heart in anything they've done in their professional lives.

Plutocracy has gotten lucky twice. Its first great enemy in the world was Communism, and its second (and current) great enemy is Islamic fundamentalism. In both cases, the inimical ideology is even more repugnantly authoritarian than plutocracy. Also, in both cases, the inimical ideology serves mainly as a framework for ideas. The emotional energy driving the resistance is nationalism–the passion not to be ruled by foreigners, or the bought native agents of foreigners.

Terrorism might be defined as "violent resistance to the imperialism of plutocracy". We USAmericans will never be free of terrorism as long as plutocracy owns the US government, and uses that government as its primary instrument of spreading and enforcing plutocratic imperialism.

Speaking of having one's nose up in the air: What you fail to realize is that most true and honest liberals would have no problem with embracing anyone of any political bent, be they conservative, liberal, libertarian, etc., if they had an agenda that truly supports and promotes freedom. The principal problem with so-called "libertarians" is that, while they claim to hate "big government" they also hate the little guy because they want big business to run rough shod over everyone, USING OPEN BORDERS AND "FREE TRADE" to make working people poorer by the minute. You can minus the cops and the politicians right now and who would that leave in charge? Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Charles and David Koch, etc., These people would merely fund their own private mercenaries and create oppression that "they" would control.
SIMPLY PUT: LIBTARDS CAN NEVER MAKE COMMON CAUSE WITH THOSE ON THE LEFT BECAUSE THE ECONOMICS OF THE LIBTARDS, VON MISES, HAYEK, ETC. SUCKS AND YOU PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THOSE WITH THE MOST MONEY SHOULD RULE, PERIOD.

Not that such violent resistance necessarily accomplishes anything. The 9/11 hijackers (assuming, for now, that it was not a false flag operation) didn't kill any of their enemies. They killed a few thousand of the SLAVES of their enemies. Their enemies don't care, because they can always get millions, even billions, more slaves where those came from.

[…] scandal engulfing America, with new allegations coming out just about every day. The latest is Edward Snowden, who promises to be a major embarrassment to the Empire. Obama is in trouble, and must be looking […]

There's something very fishy in all this. How does a guy(high school dropout) make $200k a yr? You can't tell me that TPTB couldn't squash an interview with Snowden at the Guardian(MSM member). Now if the Guardian did an expose' with Sibel Edmonds, that WOULD be a story. And she's been around for yrs…and gagged.

WRONG. Justin often puts too much faith in people like Rand Paul (who lacks his father's courage and consistency, although he may be learning), as well as the teatards (who are only militant against taxes and national health care), but he is not a "front" for any of them. If he is a "front" for anything, it is for a faction of the Libertarian Party, which is trying to turn the teabrains in their direction, mostly without success. The problem is, neither most Libertarians, nor teatards, nor most right-wingers, are inclined to demonstrate against war or government spying, primarily out of idiot loyalty (a.k.a. patriotism, "don't undermine the troops," etc.) or "legalism," and confine their opposition to whining at their legislators. Unfortunately, the far left that usually does public demonstrations is too weak and isolated to perform it's historic task, & the right wing too silly and tame to take it up instead. Imagine if, instead of just congressional hand-wringing, we also had traffic stopping demos in major cities. The national security state would either have to remove the velvet glove, or back off slowly. You don't get your liberty back by asking

Running a corrupt, secretive government is expensive. You have to buy silence.

Snowden's employer Booz Allen Hamilton gets 99% of its revenue from government contracts. That is a sure sign that–if what Booz Allen is doing is necessary–then it should be done more cheaply by government employees instead of by for-profit companies.

However, there is a reason for contracting out the work at greatly inflated prices. It is the government's dirty work. A civil servant receiving civil servant's pay might have a conscience and leak to the press. By greatly overpaying a contractor, you provide an incentive for the contractor and its greatly overpaid employees (like Snowden who was paid $200,000) to go along with the program and keep their mouths shut. It works with most people.

One thing we have to bear in mind. Now that we have lauded Ed Snowden as a hero, we must turn the focus on what he exposed and the people that lied about it.

The supporters of PRISM will try to use Snowden as a distraction from that. We need to constantly demand that the program be stopped, that James Clapper be prosecuted for perjury, that Obama be impeached, and that the NSA be flushed out and rechartered to not spy on Americans. Before 9/11, it was an ethic in that agency to not spy on Americans, so that ethic can be restored. A fish always rots from the head, so Obama needs to go, though we'll have to get rid of Biden first just like we got rid of Spiro Agnew.

WRONG? I don't think so. More like your head is to far in the sand to take notice of what is truly going on. Anything that has democrat or republican stamped on it is of no value to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Charles and David Koch run the teabagging reactionary republican wing of the war party while Soros and Buffett run the authoritarian democrat wing of the war party. End result? More war, more outsourced jobs, more food stamp debit card and money printing by the federal reserve for the megabanks both domestic and overseas, and more brutal police state crackdown on anyone who is smart enough to object to all this rampan corruption and criminality. And you or any other sucker who is too thick in the skull to see that are going to get exactly what's coming to you. Justin Raimondo knows where hs bread is buttered, and it aint buttered by anyone who posts here. Follow the money and see where it leads……………………

Maybe you need to take your medication before the profuse sweating into your tinfoil hat causes you permanent brain damage. You might realize (after taking your blue pill) that simply because person A has good things to say about Senator X, or Senator X's allies, does not mean that person A is in league with Senator X or his allies. The world is NOT a giant conspiracy. As for "following the money," what f**king money have YOU followed? Care to display the copious records of Antiwar.com's financial sources which you have acquired by "follow(ing) the money?" What, no records? Oh, wait, I know — you don't really mean "follow the money" — it's just a metaphor for agreeing with your political analysis. Well, even if I did agree with your political take (except for the general worthlessness of the 2 parties, it is paranoid gibberish), I would STILL require actual evidence before I make accusations. Try living outside of your own metaphors.

[…] Edward Snowden, American HeroAntiwar.comIf we look at America as one vast prison, with ourselves as the inmates, we can get some idea of what the national security bureaucracy was envisioning when they conceived PRISM, “Boundless Informant,” and the program that records the details (minus … […]

[…] on terror” has conjured into being, let alone the invasions we’ve launched in its name. The Panopticon uncovered by Snowden is not some recent invention: it was born before the Bush administration – […]

[…] on terror” has conjured into being, let alone the invasions we’ve launched in its name. The Panopticon uncovered by Snowden is not some recent invention: it was born before the Bush administration – […]

[…] on terror” has conjured into being, let alone the invasions we’ve launched in its name. The Panopticon uncovered by Snowden is not some recent invention: it was born before the Bush administration – […]

Some individuals have an awareness level and a drive to do what is right that many with years of education don't have – particularly many who are educated in the U.S. who party and pass, but perhaps don't truly commit themselves to learning or knowing. Money often also talks at universtities. If one's parent is an alumni and contributor a grade can be inflated or entrance guaranteed. A high school dropout . . . may be far better educated in various areas than those who coasted through university and on into a cushy job because of a parent or who a parent knows.

[…] It’s going to be a long, hard battle: there is no magic strategy or tactic that will bring the Surveillance State to its knees. And the above is only the beginning of the discussion: surely the question of how to go about winning back our freedom and rescuing the Constitution will be vigorously debated. Yet the clock is ticking, and the longer we let our rulers get away with spying on us the harder it will be to dislodge and dismantle the Panopticon. […]

[…] It’s going to be a long, hard battle: there is no magic strategy or tactic that will bring the Surveillance State to its knees. And the above is only the beginning of the discussion: surely the question of how to go about winning back our freedom and rescuing the Constitution will be vigorously debated. Yet the clock is ticking, and the longer we let our rulers get away with spying on us the harder it will be to dislodge and dismantle the Panopticon. […]

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative, and writes a monthly column for Chronicles. He is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement [Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000], and An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard [Prometheus Books, 2000].